Under Paris

I never thought I’d see an Oscar-nominated actress, someone I last remember gracefully navigating the black-and-white elegance of The Artist, screaming at a digital shark in a Parisian sewer. But here we are in the 2020s, the era where Netflix’s algorithm has decided that what the world truly needs is a high-budget, surprisingly grim French monster movie that treats the Seine like a giant, murky soup bowl.

I watched Under Paris (or Sous la Seine) on a rainy Tuesday afternoon while my neighbor was loudly practicing the tuba, and honestly, the dissonant brass notes provided a better soundtrack to the onscreen chaos than I could have imagined. It’s a film that exists in a strange, contemporary pocket: it wants to be a serious ecological warning, a gritty police procedural, and a "shark-nado" style splatter-fest all at once. Usually, that kind of identity crisis results in a cinematic car crash, but director Xavier Gens—a man who clearly hasn't met a practical gore effect he didn't like—manages to steer this shark into some genuinely entertaining, if utterly unhinged, territory.

A Recipe for French Bouillabaisse

The setup is classic creature-feature stuff. Bérénice Bejo plays Sophia, a grieving scientist who lost her team (and her husband) to a giant, mutated mako shark named Lilith in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Flash forward a few years, and Lilith has somehow migrated to the Seine, just in time for Paris to host its first-ever international triathlon. Sophia teams up with Adil (Nassim Lyes), a river police commander who looks like he walked off the set of a high-end cologne commercial, to stop a bloodbath.

What makes this feel so right now isn't just the CGI shark; it's the satirical bite directed at city leadership. The Mayor of Paris, played with delicious, stubborn arrogance by Aurélia Petit, is clearly a stand-in for every politician who has ever prioritized a photo op over public safety. She looks like she was dressed by a committee that hates color and spends most of the film insisting the water is fine, despite the mounting evidence that a prehistoric predator is currently treating the catacombs like an all-you-can-eat buffet. It’s a cynical, post-pandemic vibe that resonates—the "everything is fine" mantra while the world is clearly on fire (or, in this case, underwater).

Gore, Gush, and Gen-Z

If you’re coming for the kills, Xavier Gens does not disappoint. This isn't the "less is more" approach of Spielberg. Once the film hits its midpoint in a sequence involving a Gen-Z activist group and a very crowded underground canal, it transitions from a slow-burn thriller into a full-blown massacre. The activists, led by Mika (Léa Léviant), are portrayed with a biting irony; their desire to "save" the shark leads to a sequence that is so spectacularly stupid it becomes a work of art.

The film's use of the Paris catacombs is its secret weapon. There is something inherently claustrophobic about the dark, bone-lined tunnels beneath the City of Light. When the water starts rising and the shark starts lunging, the film leans into its horror roots. The lighting is moody, the sound design is wet and crunchy, and the stakes feel surprisingly high for a movie about a river shark. My only gripe? The CGI shark occasionally looks like a stray log with teeth, especially when it's moving at high speeds. But in an era of $200 million blockbusters that look like PlayStation 2 cutscenes, I can forgive a French streaming movie for a few wonky pixels.

The Streaming Monster

Under Paris is a fascinating artifact of the Netflix era. It’s a "mid-budget" movie that looks expensive, released globally to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the real-life 2024 Paris Olympics and the very real drama surrounding the cleanliness of the Seine. It doesn't have the nostalgic warmth of a 90s thriller, nor does it try to be an "elevated" horror film. It’s unapologetically bleak. By the time we reached the final act, I realized I wasn't watching a typical hero's journey; I was watching a nihilistic disaster movie.

It’s worth noting that Nassim Lyes is a legitimate action star in the making. He brings a physical intensity to Adil that grounds the more ridiculous moments. He and Bérénice Bejo have a weary, professional chemistry that works much better than a forced romance would have. They both play the material straight, which is the only way a movie like this works. If the actors wink at the camera, the tension evaporates. Here, they stay underwater until the bitter, salty end.

This isn't the next Jaws, but it’s certainly the best shark movie we’ve had in years, mostly because it has the courage to be completely miserable. It captures a specific contemporary anxiety about the environment and incompetent leadership, then wraps it in a layer of bloody, shark-infested mayhem. If you can get past the somewhat slow first act and the occasional wonky effect, you’re in for a wild ride through the sewers. Just maybe don't watch it right before you go for a swim.